B--,
So I figured I should be a bit of a better Aspirant and actually send my mentor updates every once in a while, so I thought end-of-the-month wrap-ups might be good.
I'm currently working through Lesson 4: Air, and nearing the end. My approach to the next four lessons (for the four elements) is likely to be haphazard and jumbled because of my various personal studies and also scheduling. For instance, this month for Jeff's birthday we made a trip down to South Carolina to visit the Angel Oak and spend an afternoon at the beach — so I had an opportunity to do some fairly intense meditative work with the elements of Earth and Water (and, thanks to the sun, the heat and my Flamekeeping shift with the Brigidine Cill I belong to, Fire as well) in addition to my Air work. I'm also still working through my understanding of the Three Realms and the three Druidic elements/principles on my own and developing a more in-depth regular meditative practice around them.
That's something I actually wanted to ask you about. I'm finding, the more I work with the Three Realms meditation, the more I'm feeling a need to diverge from the current way it's laid out by DOTR. Connecting to the Land below and the Sky above, with Sea in the middle, isn't jiving for me. Though I understand the reasoning behind it, I find that I am much more drawn to placing the Sea below, with the Sky above, and the Land as the "bridge" connecting the two, symbolized especially by the Tree, the bilé or axis mundi, which reaches its roots down seeking water and reaches its branches up seeking air and light.
This layout resonates for me on a lot of levels. Mystically or mytho-poetically, the Sky and Sea are both realms of vastness, interconnection and blurred boundaries, realms in which the self can be "swept up" into an experience of union with something beyond and bigger — while the Land is the realm of matter and form and individuality, where the two realms of Sea and Sky, which are in many ways opposites, are brought into relationship which each other and made manifest in a concrete way unique to each being and place. While the Sea has symbolic associations with depths, memory, the past and the Underworld/Otherworld of the ancestors, the Sky has associations with heights, aspiration, the future and the celestial Heaven/Otherworld of the gods — while the Land is the concrete, experiential world of the present, with all the particular spirits of the land that dwell between Sea and Sky. There's even some echoes in psychology — the Sea of emotions and the Sky of the intellect both expressed through the physical body (Land), or the Sea as the unconscious or id and the Sky as the "higher" consciousness or superego being navigated and kept in balance by the mundane consciousness of the ego (Land). All of these examples are not exactly done justice by trying to fit them into a linear model of below, above and center... but generally, if that's roughly what you're going for, the Sea below and Sky above is making more sense to me.
In addition, the two gods I work with most closely and who I feel have "claimed" me to some extent are Brigid, particularly in her solar/stellar aspect, and Manannan, son of the sea, so that the Three Realms working with the Sea below and the Sky above also feels like a rightful way of acknowledging and inviting the blessings of my gods into my life (the Land or bridge that connects them, and through which I express their influence and energies in a concrete way for those around me).
So I was hoping for your feedback on this issue of changing the DOTR practice. I'm worried it'll put me out of sync with others in the Order, so I wanted to seek some clarification from you about just how central or essential it is to work with the Three Realms in the way specified in the Aspirant Lessons. I also would like to write up my version of the Three Realms working along with an explanation (in a more coherent form than this letter!) to share on the DOTR group blog eventually.
Other than that, here's a brief run-down of what else I've been doing over the last month:
- Astrology : I've been working through some texts on astrology and have started a process of in-depth, holistic analysis of my own natal chart (you can read the results so far here, here and here). I plan to continue that work in months to come, including picking up Arroyo's book on astrology and the four elements, as I think I mentioned to you already.
- Ogam : I read through Erynn Rowan Laurie's book on the ogam and plan to start working through the aicme again using flash cards to reacquaint myself with them (since it's been years since I tried working with them, and my experience with Tarot in the meantime has given me a lot more practice and grounding in the basics of divination). Erynn's writing about the three "currents" of ogam gave me a lot to think about in relation to the issue of the Three Realms.
- Work with Manannan : I've been doing some meditation and dream-work to cultivate my relationship with Manannan, which I talk about a little bit in my DOTR Aspirant blog. I've also been discussing ideas with a few others on a Pagan forum I visit who work with both Brigid and Manannan on developing some spiritual practices to understand the relationship between them.
- "Sapling" Work with Savanah : Jeff and I have continued to work with Savanah, Jeff's oldest daughter, on her year-long "Druidry for Teens" study course that we developed for her. This month, we were focusing on poetry, story and mythology as ways of connecting to our ancestors and the past (as well as preserving memory for the future), and exploring dreams and divination as ways of connecting to the gods and to our own subconscious mind through the use of symbolism and imagination.
- Justice, Nature and Identity : I've written about issues of justice and peacemaking on my personal website as well as over on Pagan+Politics, and I've been tangentially involved in the on-going debate about Pagan identity through my post on Pagan Coming Out Day and my essay on Religious Branding. I also wrote a piece on the importance of connecting to the natural world and the sacred land in this "Digital Age," and shared some of my nature photography on my website.
Wow! I'm kind of impressed at how much I got done this month! Needless to say, my wedding is coming up soon, so it's unlikely I'll have as much to report at the end of June. :)
I'd love to hear your feedback on this letter or any of the posts on my DOTR Aspirant blog.
Many blessings,
Ali
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